Rick Perry Cut the Texas Forest Service Budget By $34 Million

[ProSense]

Rick Perry Cut the Texas Forest Service Budget By $34 Million

by Libby Shaw

Governor Rick Perry and the super majority of Republican lawmakers voted to cut a whopping $34 million from the Texas Forest Service and rural fire departments. The Texas GOP made this draconian cut while knowing that Texas continues to suffer from the ravages of one of the worst droughts in its history.

The Texas Forest Service faces almost $34 million in budget cuts over the next two years, roughly a third of the agency's total budget. The cuts are in both the House and Senate versions of the proposed state budget.

The Forest Service has about 200 firefighters and offers assistance grants to volunteer fire departments. Assistance grants are likely to take the biggest hit.

Volunteers -- two of whom were killed in fighting this year's fires -- make up nearly 80 percent of the state's fire-fighting force and are first responders to roughly 90 percent of wildfires in Texas.

Knowing that wild fires are the likely outcome of any drought, especially when coupled with a record breaking heat wave, Rick Perry failed to prepare a back up Plan B with which to deal with this crisis. Rick Perry's prayer rallies may have been a decent attempt to hope for the best but the cut to the Texas Forest Service budget offered no viable attempt to plan for the worst.

The fires continue to ravage large swaths of land across the state. Hundreds of homes have been burned to the ground.

The budget cut to the Texas Forest Service and rural fire departments could have been avoided if Rick Perry and the super majority of Republican lawmakers would have considered a tax increase for their sugar daddy donors and big supporters like home builder Bob Perry and John McHale to name just two.

more

Texas calls for help as wildfires worsen

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Gov. Rick Perry complained about the slow pace of assistance from Washington and Ft. Hood as Federal Emergency Management Agency officials arrived in Bastrop, where 600 houses were burned, to survey fire damage.

Perry called on the Obama administration to expand the scope of federal disaster relief. He noted that in addition to issuing state disaster proclamations when fires flared in April, he had sent a letter to President Obama requesting a major disaster declaration, which would have made the state eligible for federal assistance.

The Obama administration denied Perry's request May 3. Perry appealed and received partial approval July 1. A request to expand the scope of federal relief is still pending, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.

White House Spokesman Jay Carney said the administration had been monitoring the wildfires and approved seven federal grants to Texas to help with the latest outbreak. "We will continue to work closely with the state and local emergency management officials their efforts to contain these fires," he said.

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[Chipper Chat]

1. Teabagger translation of your headline:

"Rick Perry Increases Forest Service Budget by $34 million to Fight forest fire"